Gravestone flower support



Jan. 5, 1965 R. cucuLLo 3,164,343

GRAVESTONE FLOWER SUPPORT Filed June 19, 1963 INVENTOR RALPH CUCULLO ATTORNEY.

' support band;

United States Patent 3,164,343 GRAVESTQNE FLOWER SUPPORT Ralph Cucullo, 118 Mount .loy Place,

. New Rochelle, NY. Filed June 19, 1963, Ser. No. 289,936 3 Claims. (Cl. 24-827.8)

The present invention relates to a gravestone flower support in general and to a device for supporting flowers on a gravestone, in particular.

Different means have been proposed before, to attach flowers to a gravestone, which are, however, either not durable or of a rather complicated structure and finally, also not easily'removable.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a gravestone flower support, which is easily secured to a gravestone of any cross-section and which is either permanently or releasably secured thereto.

' It is another object of the present invention to provide a gravestone support, which comprises a band of, preferably, flexible metal, which has its longitudinal edges bent over, to form longitudinal beads and to provide a guide for an adjacent band portion, likewise having its longitudinal edges bent over to form complementary beads, and in which means are arranged for interlocking the adjoining portions of two adjacent bands or of the free end portions of a single metal band.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a gravestone flower support, which comprises a metal band surrounding the gravestone, and which includes come apparent in the following detailed description, the

3,lh4,343 Patented Jan. 5, 1965 ends complement each other and will ride over the inclined tooth-like members 7 of the portion 3 of the adjacent element and, thereby, interlock with the innermost of the tooth-like members 7, in the manner illustrated by the embodiment depicted in FIG. 6, sothat the two adjacent elements are connected in such manner, that they cannotbe released from each other. Alternatively, the connection of the adjacent elements can be effected by utilizing any one of the tooth-like members 7, for the interlocking function. Thus it will be clear the manner in which the gravestone flower support of the invention may be easily secured to a gravestone of any cross-section. A release can be brought about only by bending thetoothlike members 7 back into a plane parallel to the metal band 1.

While the band 1 is sufficiently tightly secured around the gravestone 2, additional means are provided to retain the metal band 1 by friction at the predetermined level of the gravestone.

One embodiment of. such means is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. For this purpose, a rectangular sheet metal piece 9 slides between the beads 5 into the longitudinalportion 3 of each of the elements, which sheet metal piece 9 has a portion thereof cut out on three sides to provide a flap it). Since the sheet metal piece 9 is made of resilient present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective front view of the gravestone flower support, shown attached to a gravestone;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of one of the elements used and combined with similar elements to form the flower FIG. 3 is a front perspective view. of the element shown in FIG. 2',

FIG. 4 is a section-along the lines 4-4 of FIG. 3; FIG. 5- is section along the lines 55 of FIG. 3; FIG. 6 is a section along the lines 66 of FIG. 3; FIG. '7 is a perspective view ofa flower wreath attachstone; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a flower bouquet holder suspended by the metal band surrounding the gravestone.

Referring now to the drawing, and in particular to FIGS. 1 to 3, the gravestone flower support comprisesv a metal band 1, which surrounds and is secured to the gravestone 2. The metal band 1 is formed, preferably, of a plurality of similar longitudinal parts.

One single part of the metal band 1 surrounding the gravestone 2 is shown in FIG. 2 and each of the parts comprises a longitudinal piece of sheet metal consisting of a first portion 3 of greater length and a second portion 4 5 has a plurality of crosswise disposed cuts 6 to form tooth-like members 7, which, as particularly shown in FIG. 6, are bent in such manner, that they are disposed slightly inclined out of a plane parallel to the portion 3.,

metal, upon proper bending of the flap 10 out of the plane of the sheet metal piece 9 it will have the tendency to retain such position forming an angleto the plane of the sheet metal piece 9, to engage by its spring force the Wall of the gravestone 2.

While it is possible to hang flower arrangements directly on the metal band 1, additional members can be provided to simplify the attachment of flower bouquets or flower wreaths.

Referring now-toFIG. 7, a wreath support is shown,

while the upward bend 13, disposed at the bottom of the sheet metal band 11, is adapted to support a Wreath or other flower arrangements. v v I Referring now to FIG. 8, a preferably, slightly conically shaped tubular member 15 is shown,- to which a supporting hook-shaped member 16"is secured and which is adapted to be suspended upon the upper edge of the metal band 1.

While I have disclosed one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that this embodiment is 3 given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the

scope of the present invention being determined by the metal .band being bent over to form heads at the topand. I

the bottom of the metal band withthe beads ad- I i iacent one free end being adapted to siidably receive the beads adjacent the other free end therebetween,

said connecting means comgarising at least one crosswise disposed cut in the beads adjacent on of said free ends in order tobend a group of portions of said beads into an angular position relative to the plane piece having one end bent over rearwardiy and its other end bent over forwardly, and

said rearward-1y bent over end being suspended from the top edge of said metal band and said forwardly bent over end being adapted to support a flower arrangement.

3. The gravestone 'fiower sue-port, as set forth in claim 1, which includes a conical tubular member having a bacl; portion, and a hook shaped metal piece secured to said back portion of said conical tubular member and engaging the top edge of said metal band to support said conical tubular member thereon.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS of the groups of bent over portions on the beads of 9 7/29 Wakefield 248-224 said other free end to connect the said free ends to- 0,559 10/ 33 Keidel 292-321 gcther in relative positions thereof corresponding 20 3 2/35 Elias 248205 to the longitudinal spacing of the said desired group 2,103,127 7 V 1 Enk vo rt 21l-'7l from the said other free end. 2,606,733 8/ 52 Krajewski 248-215 2, The gravestone flower support, as set forth in claim ,755,051 7/56 Cook 248-340 1, which includes 7 a supporting member consisting of a longitudinal metal 25 CLAUDE LE ROY, 'l' 

1. A GRAVESTONE FLOWER SUPPORT COMPRISING A METAL BAND ADAPTED TO SURROUND AND BE SECURED TO A GRAVESTONE, SAID METAL BAND HAVING TWO FREE ENDS WHICH ARE ADAPTED TO BE CONNECTED TOGETHER IN A PLURALITY OF RELATIVE POSITIONS THEREOF, CONNECTING MEANS AT EACH OF SAID FREE ENDS FOR CONNECTING SAID FREE ENDS TOGETHER, THE UPPER AND LOWER LONGITUDINAL EDGES OF SAID METAL BAND BEING BENT OVER TO FORM BEADS AT THE TOP AND THE BOTTOM OF THE METAL BAND WITH THE BEADS ADJACENT ONE FREE END BEING ADAPTED TO SLIDABLY RECEIVE THE BEADS ADJACENT THE OTHER FREE END THEREBETWEEN, SAID CONNECTING MEANS COMPRISING AT LEAST ONE CROSSWISE DISPOSED CUT IN THE BEADS ADJACENT ON OF SAID FREE ENDS IN ORDER TO BEND A GROUP OF PORTIONS OF SAID BEADS INTO AN ANGULAR POSITION RELATIVE TO THE PLANE OF SAID METAL BAND, AND A PLURALITY OF LONGITUDINALLY SPACED, CROSSWISE, DIS- 